


What Did I Ever Come Here For?

by livingonalatteandaprayer



Category: Runaways (Comics), Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-19 03:54:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20650775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livingonalatteandaprayer/pseuds/livingonalatteandaprayer
Summary: This is my first time writing fanfiction so we'll see how it goes. There are not enough Deanoru fics to keep me going, so I decided to try writing one myself. Also I don't really know how good this summary will be because I don't want to give too much away right now.Third person POV, will alternate between Nico and Karolina's perspectives at different times.Nico recently moved to NYC, about a year out of college and is feeling lonely. Karolina's been living in New York since college graduation. Both girls went to the same college in California and had taken a few of the same classes. Junior year they worked on a project together and got along well, but didn't become friends or anything. One day they both download tinder and are intrigued to see a familiar face.There will be plenty of angst, but also a ton of cute little moments between our two girls. The other Runaways make an appearance as well, but are mostly background characters.





	1. Introduction/Background

This chapter is fairly short as it mostly just exists to set up the plot for the rest of the story. In the future I plan for each chapter to have at least 1,000 words. I'm not sure how frequently I'll update, as this is my first time writing, but I'll do my best. I plan for this to be a fairly long fic, as I enjoy reading those more myself.

Background info:  
-New York City  
-Present day  
-No powers  
-Karolina and Nico are not friends, they don’t have anything against each other, they just haven’t interacted beyond this one class they took junior year of college where they were partners for a huge project, they’d wave/smile at each other when they’d walk past the other, but they didn’t talk, hang out, or interact on social media during college  
-Both girls graduated college the year prior and are 23 years old now  
-Karolina was an out lesbian all through college, she was very open about it, so Nico knew  
-Nico only recently came to terms with her bisexuality and came out to her family and a few close friends, but hasn’t publicly declared anything  
-Both moved after college, far from where the university was located, Karolina right away for a job, Nico just a few weeks ago (about a year after K)  
-Nico had moved away from her family, where Karolina moved back home near her family

Nico was absolutely exhausted. She finally felt settled into her new apartment. Rent in New York City is astronomically high, so she’d had to choose an apartment with roommates. Said roommates were a nice couple around the same age as her, Chase and Gert, as well as Gert’s younger sister Molly who had just graduated high school. They were all really welcoming and did their best to help her get settled, but Nico still felt pretty lonely as the three roommates were so closely bonded. Now that she has a routine down, Nico is determined to meet people on her own. Ideally she’d be able to find a romantic partner, but making a friend of her own would be amazing too, so she downloaded tinder on her phone. She figured it would be an easy way to at least get a feel for what people around her age here were like. Nervously, she set the option for being interested in guys and girls, not that she was uncomfortable with her bisexuality, but because she had never dated a girl before and it was both exciting and scary to think that she might get matched up with, and go on a first date with, a woman. After finishing setting up her account she began the process of swiping.

A few blocks away Karolina was also trying her luck with tinder. She hadn’t been on a date in almost a year. Her long-time girlfriend, Julie, had broken up with Karolina shortly after college graduation, since they each had gotten jobs on opposite coasts. Karolina was devastated after this happened and tried to soothe the pain in her soul with a lot of alcohol and a lot of one night stands. All that did was leave Karolina exhausted and lonelier than ever, so she decided to take some time and get reacquainted with herself. She spent her time this past year focusing on her work, reading intriguing books, discovering cool music, and taking an insane amount of yoga classes. Karolina has her own apartment, thanks to her insanely rich parents and the trust fund Karolina had inherited upon graduating college. She deserved the money after the nasty, high-profile divorce her parents put her through during middle school.

Karolina doesn’t really have a type, so she found herself swiping right frequently. Women are just so beautiful, no one can blame me for being attracted to all of them, she’d thought to herself. One particular face stood out to her, likely due in part to this woman being the complete opposite of Julie, but Karolina was kind of mesmerized by one Nico Minoru. It took her a second to remember that she actually knows Nico in real life, they had worked on a project together a few years ago. She thought Nico was super cool and pretty hot back then, but Nico had been dating a guy at the time and Karolina was with Julie. Also, she had incorrectly pegged Nico as straight.

In her frenzy of scrolling back and forth through Nico’s photos, she accidentally “super liked” Nico’s profile. As a tinder newbie she didn’t know exactly what that meant, she was never one to pay attention during app tutorials, but it seemed daunting. Immediately she googled “super liking on tinder” and found out that Nico would be informed of the super like. Now, Karolina was definitely considering swiping right, she couldn’t decide if having a sort of friendly history with Nico would make online dating easier or more awkward, but a super like seemed very aggressive and Karolina did not want to come off too strong. Imagine her surprise when a few minutes later she got a notification saying Nico had “matched” with her. Apparently her super-like had not scared Nico away. Nervously, Karolina typed out a message to send to Nico in the app, figuring she should be the one to start a conversation after the super-like. It said…

_ Hey Nico! You’re in New York? That’s awesome, I moved here right after graduation. I hope you remember me from that project we did together and I don’t sound like a lunatic that seems to already know who you are haha. How long have you been here? I just downloaded tinder today so it was comforting to see a sort of friendly face :) _

_ __ _

_ __ _

Nico’s reply and Nico’s experience with coming across Karolina’s profile will be in the next chapter…


	2. Nico Responds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico receives and then responds to Karolina's message

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is still a little bit shorter than I'd like my chapters to be, but I wanted to get another chapter out. I don't plan on making each chapter just from the point of view of Karolina or Nico, I'm not really looking to reiterate each chapter from the other point of view, so after this chapter it will likely be a mix between the two girls.

As she looked through tinder profiles, Nico realized just how nervous she was to potentially talk to another female in a romantic way. She swiped right on mostly guys; as long as they were moderately attractive and were not republican, white-supremacist lunatics, she gave them the benefit of the doubt. There were a few cute girls she’d swiped right on, but it made her more wary because she didn’t have any idea what type of girls might even find her attractive and what she wanted to look for in a woman. Nico then decided to start thinking about it in terms of what she’d look for in a female friend to start with, since she was also interested in friendship.

Suddenly, a gorgeous blonde-haired beauty with mesmerizing ocean eyes popped up on her screen. Something about this woman seemed familiar, but Nico couldn’t place her. With her photo came a notification that this majestic woman had “super-liked” Nico’s profile. Not really knowing what that meant, Nico clicked on this girl’s info. Upon seeing that her name was Karolina Dean, Nico realized she actually knew this woman! Karolina was the sweet, smart project partner she’d had junior year. Immediately Nico began to panic, thinking there’s no way someone as hot as Karolina would be into her. She remembered what Karolina’s college girl friend had looked like and she and Nico had nothing in common, looks or personality wise.

Flattered that Karolina thought highly enough of her to “super-like” her, Nico swiped right, she thought it only fair, no matter how intimidating reconnecting with Karolina seemed. Nico had already gotten notifications that she’d matched with other people, but she was choosing to wait and see if anyone would message her first. With Karolina, however, she felt like maybe she should reach out first. Something about that woman made her feel more bold. As she thought about how to start the message, she received a notification that Karolina had in fact sent a message to her. Timidly, she opened said message, anxious to know what the other woman had written.

_Hey Nico! You’re in New York? That’s awesome, I moved here right after graduation. I hope you remember me from that project we did together and I don’t sound like a lunatic that seems to already know who you are haha. How long have you been here? I just downloaded tinder today so it was comforting to see a sort of friendly face :)_

Nico found Karolina’s worry that she wouldn’t remember the blonde adorably endearing. Though she didn’t immediately recognize Karolina, she realized it quickly enough, and definitely before reading Karolina’s message. If she was being honest, Nico felt honored that the blonde had remembered her first. She felt even more honored that there seemed to be a chance Karolina was interested in going on a date with her. Feeling more confident than when she thought she’d be messaging first, Nico began to craft a response.

_Hey Karolina, of course I remember you, that would be pretty shitty of me to forget such a great project partner lol. Yeah, I just moved to the city a few weeks ago after getting a job out here. Before that I was still in California. I’m finally feeling settled in, but I haven’t really managed to meet anyone other than my roommates, so I figured its time. Hence why I downloaded tinder today too. What a coincidence! I’d have to agree that seeing a familiar face was nice, though I’m not sure if I should be offended by the “sort of” that you tagged onto that statement. I’ve been told enough times that I have major resting bitch face, but I thought our semester as project partners might have proven to you that I’m friendly enough :)_

Looking down and rereading the message, Nico noticed just how long it was. She definitely hadn’t meant to ramble on. The little teasing bit at the end she wasn’t sure about actually including, but back during their time as partners they’d gotten to a point where they did tease each other a little bit, and also Nico feels most comfortable when she’s allowed to fully express her teasing/sarcastic sense of humor, so its a good idea to find out now if Karolina can handle it. She’d thought about ending the message with another question, prompting a reason for Karolina to then message her back again, but Nico’s never been good at making small talk and so she hoped her paragraph of text was enough to convey to Karolina that she’s interested in continuing to chat. Before she could second guess herself she pressed send and quickly dropped her phone on her bed, deciding to go grab a snack from the kitchen and not obsessively wait to see if she’d get a response.

Stepping into the kitchen, she was met with all three of her roommates sitting on the couch watching a movie. Chase and Gert were cuddling on one half of the couch with Molly sprawled out on the other. They each immediately looked up and said a friendly hello asking Nico how she’s doing. She knows she’s lucky to have these three as her roommates because they’re really nice to her, but they also let her do her own thing most of the time. As Nico opens the pantry to grab a snack, Molly pipes up and asks her if she’d like to join them in watching the movie, as it had just started. All three looked at her expectantly and had big smiles on their faces when Nico agreed to come watch. She figured it would keep her mind off waiting for a reply from Karolina and it would be nice to spend time with her roommates that were slowly becoming her friends.

Nico grabbed some popcorn and a water and placed them on the coffee table next to the recliner before walking back into her room to grab her phone. The others had paused the movie so that Nico wouldn’t miss any more of it, so she didn’t bother checking her phone before walking out and settling into the comfy chair. It wasn’t until the movie had started again and she wanted to check the time that Nico realized Karolina had already messaged her back…


End file.
